


new turned leaves

by redledgers



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Grief/Mourning, Post-Canon, Seasons, spoilers beyond 115
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-02-01 02:08:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12694863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redledgers/pseuds/redledgers
Summary: the summers in whitestone are different now





	new turned leaves

**Author's Note:**

> birthday fic for @ceemonster on twitter!

The summer in Whitestone is colder than most, or so Cassandra mentions offhand over breakfast one morning. It's only a little chillier than Vex likes anyway, so she chalks it down to the early time of year.   
  
Until it lingers, as if the cusp of spring and winter had never released it’s grasp on the city. Perhaps it hadn’t.

She resigns herself to putting on an extra layer and bringing a blanket with her to the library without a complaint, but it feels _wrong_. The summer before that, after the dragons and before all this, had been warmer. Normal. Not as warm as she likes, but still a normal that made sense for Whitestone. But her silence on the matter has not gone unnoticed, and one evening, Percy puts his book on the bedside table and says, “You’ve adapted well to the weather.”

Vex rolls over in her swath of blankets and blinks at him. “I have no idea what you’re on about,” she says. She slips an arm out of the blankets and prods his leg. “I’ll continue to be a blanket hog whenever I please.”

Percy hums. He knows not to push, sometimes. But he is still belligerent and reactionary, and so he fixes her with a look that speaks volumes. This is not normal. Vex is not normal. “This is about Vax, isn’t it?”

It was as if the fire had sputtered out and the room left cold. Truthfully, she knew everything had changed. Everyone knew it, but they’d given her the time to grieve and it seemed like everyone had moved on. (She knew they probably hadn’t, not completely, but it seemed like she was still hanging back, hanging on.) But Percy’s gaze is steady and understanding _(I think I miss my family)_ and so she squeezes her eyes against the tears threatening to break free and nods.

No one speaks until Percy’a fingertips brush gently against her arm and Vex opens her eyes again. “It was warm in Byroden. In the summers, yes, but most of the time. Vax and I used to spend every second of it outside as long as there was enough light to see by.” Percy’s lip twitches up into a smile because perhaps he knew how hard it was to determine when it was too dark to play outside. She takes a breath and presses on. “I was always better at climbing trees but Vax knew how to hide from mother better when it was time to come home for lunch. We lost that when we went to Syngorn.”

The summers had been the same, balmy and bright, but whatever trees they climbed were in protest of lessons or functions; whatever time they had to spare was gone too soon. She thinks maybe they were mean to be born in the summer instead of the late fall. (They should have had it, an endless summer together even if there was distance between them.)

Percy grabs her hand suddenly, fiercely. “It’s all right to miss him, you know.” It’s true, he’s right, and maybe if anyone else had said it she would balk but this is Percy and this is about her brother, her best friend, and so it helps.

Vex stares at their hands a while longer. “I know.”

And maybe the summers in Whitestone stay cool and maybe the sun tree still grows. Maybe the ravens make their nests in the battlements and branches of the city. It takes time. But she will ever be a summer child and the chill will always linger.


End file.
